Wage-paying machine.



A. VON EARTH. WAGE PAYING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 24, \915.

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Patented Feb.19,1918-.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- lll l UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIoE.

ARTHUR VON EARTH, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

WAGE-PAYING- MACHINE.

Application filed May 24, 1915.

To (1 whom it may concern Be it known that I, Ari-non von Ban'ru, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Improvement in lVage-Pa-ying Machines, of which the following is a specifica tlon.

My invention relates to machines. for handling or counting out money, and more particularly to what may be entitled payroll machines intended to he used in factories or elsewhere as an assistance to counting out of the money for employees and keeping a record thereof.

Among the objects of the present invention are to provide mechanism which is easily controlled by an operator and by which through automatic devices the amount of wages for each employee of a factory or other place may be counted out in both. bills and coin, and a record kept thereof for the usual purposes of a pay-roll record.

A description of a suitable coin delivery mechanism is previously given in the Letters Patent granted to me on Oct. 27, 191-..- No. 1,114,828. I will describe herein the embodiment of my in'iprovements in the bill paying out device and will point out the novel features in the claims.

In the drawings: Figure l is a front elevation partly in section, being taken along the line AB Fig. 2.

Fig. 2, is an elevatimial view of the right hand end of the machine as shown in Fig. l, the end. walls heinopartly broken oli, to show the interior of. the air suction chambers.

Fig. 3, is a partial front clevational view of the machine.

Fig. 4, is an explanatory detail of the bill, upward feeding mechanism.

Fig. 5, is a view of one of the bill pockets.

Fig. 6 is a view of the machine, showing the wire connection between one of the keys of the keyboard and the electromagnets operating the shutter above each respective bill pocket.

Between the walls 3 and at of the air chambers 1 and 2 of the machine. are journaled a pair of rollers 5 and 6, over which passes an endless belt provided. with series of longitudinal perforations 8, suitably spaced from one another.# The space inclosed between the walls 3 and 4, and the upper Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb 19,1918,

Serial No. 29,993.

and lower reaches of the endless belt 7 is connected Wit openings 9 and 10. leading to air suction chambers 1 and 2, which at their bottoms 12 are connected with the air duct 13, which in turn leadsto an'e rhanst apparatus contained in a casing 14, "and driven by an electric motor '15.

In proxlmity to the roller 6 and that portion of the belt 7 passed thereover is l0- cated an auxiliary endless belt.16, which passes over the main roller 17 and the roller. 18. This auxiliary belt 16, is caused to travel in the .oppositedirection to the upper belt 7, by means "of two spur gears 19 and 20 (shown particularly in Fig. 2),,and, like the belt 7 is provided with a series of longitudinal perforations 8 spaced similarly to those in thg-upper belt 7. -The space inclosed between the upper and lowerreaches of this auxiliary endless belt 16, and the adjacent portions of the walls 3 and 4 is in direct communication through the openings 21 and 22 provided in said walls, with the air suction chambers Land 2. Since, how ever, for reasons which will hereinafter ap pear, only a partial or weaker vacuum is desired in this space, as contrasted with that maintained in the space inclosed by the'belt 7, the openings 21 and 22 are made smaller than the openings 9 and 10. In the case of.

both vacuum chambers, however, guard walls 23 and 24 respectively, are placed, to

protect the partial vacuum inside of those spaces against leakage, and to cause the air suction to act upward toward the inside of the space inclosed by reaches of the belt 7,

and from outside downward into the corre-.

sponding space between the parts of the belt 16.

Between the walls 3 and 40f the air chamhers I and 2, Fig. 2, and immediately below the rightend of the belt 7, Fig. 1, a space is included where av series of bill pockets 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 are located, each of which contains a difi'erent denomination of bills, for examp1e.one, two, five, ten and twenty dollar bills. These bill pockets are placed so as to form hollow spaces 30 between their longitudinal, walls. These.

spaces beingclosedat the bottom and at the right end 30 are communicated at their left ends with the channel 32 leading-at both ends to the air suction chambers 1 and 2. The bill pockets are provided at thetop of their inside walls with plurality of slots leading into the hollow interspaces between them as described. These interspaces are so called auxiliary suction chambers, the purpose of which is to produce at their top adjacent to the side edges of the topmost bills, a flow of air, to create a horizontal pull upon the upper layer of five or six bills, thus tending to maintain them in their proper position until the topmost one is engaged and bodily removed by air suction from the orifice 8 of the moving belt 7. The top of each of the stack of bills, however, being quite close to the lower reach of the belt 7, when the pressure is lowered through the openings 9 and 10 and any one of the perforations 8 in belt 7 reaches a point im* mediately thereabove, the suction causes the topmost bill to rise theretoward, and the bill is carried along with the travel of the belt toward the left and toward the space sepa rating the lower reach of the belt 7 from the upper reach of the belt 16 until it reaches the deflector 32, which scrapes the bill oil from the traveling belt, so that it can drop upon the tray 33 shown at the left end of the machine, Fig. 1.

It not infrequently happens, however, that two bills instead of one are drawn at the same time from any one of the initial storage piles at 25 to 29, and are drawn along by the belt 7. When, however, that portion of the belt against which it has been drawn reaches the. clear space between the lower reach of the belt 7 and the upper reach of the auxiliary belt 16 the adhesion of the secondbill to the first bill is broken by the positive air suction from the interior ofthe belt 16 which, although weaker than that within the reaches of the belt 7, is stronger than the suction that is communicated to the outer bill through the topmost bill, as taken from the pile to which the second bill has adhered. It is consequently drawn away therefrom and drawn along the auxiliary belt 16 toward a depositary for the unintentionally drawn bills, that is shown at 34 just below the belt 16; the main belt 7 meantime carries the bill which was first drawn from one of the storage piles 25 to 29 to the deflector 32 and the tray 33 as already described. The detachment of the second bill from the auxiliary belt 16 is effected by a deflector 34 shown under the lower reach of the belt 16.

t is highly desirable, however, that a complete vacuum or a very high vacuum be avoided in the spaces between any two of the upper bills, which might result from the operation of the suction. To prevent this I have provided the alternate air spaces 48, Fig. 5, as already explained. By this arrangement the air flow will be inward or toward the bills through the spaces 48 to a small extent, and outward through the suction openings 49, creating a circulation and maintaining the bills sufiiciently free from high vacuum and separated from each other, to prevent their accidental adherence while the topmost bill is being removed and transferred upon the tray or shelf 33.

It has to be mentioned that the width of the belt 7 covers the whole space between theair chambers 1 and 2, extending therefore above all the five bill pockets, which as Fig. 1 shows are placed lengthwise with the direction of the movement of the belts 7 and 16.

To each of the pockets corresponds individual orifice 8 in the belt 7, the length of which equals about the width of the bill. These orifices are located in a straight line, as can be seen from Fig. 2.

While the machine is in operation and the belt 7 passes simultaneously above stacks of bills stored in all the five pockets 25 to 29, it is desirable that only those of the bills should be selectively exposed to the action of the air suction and consequentlv engaged by the belt 7, which are ultimately wanted to be delivered upon the tray 33. For this reason I provide each of these bill pockets with separate shutters 34 All these shutters are mounted on a common shaft 35, oscillating freely, and are formed so as to cover the right end of the belt 7 encircling the part of the belt passing over the roller 5, and covering the lower reach of said belt, through the distance extending above the entire length of the bill pocket, covering the uppermost bill in each pocket, thus affording protection against action of air suction from the orifice 8 of the moving belt tending to raise these bills toward the latter.

The suspension shaft 35 is fixed by means of rigid brackets to the walls 3 and 4c of the machine. Through suitable connection of the upper part of the shutters, between the suspension point at 3 7, the bell crank ll and the slidably fixed operating rod 38,the operator standing at the left end of the machine is enabled to remove any one of the shutters, from above the left end of the bill of the denomination wanted to be paid out upon the tray 33. While the ma chine is intended to be controlled from the keyboard it is considered best to use electrical means to actuate the operating rod 38, and for this purpose I use a solenoid, the armature of which constitutes the right end of said operating rod. and the wires 45 and 46 connecting the keys of the keyboard, solenoid, and the electric source shown conventionally at 47 complete the circuit. The actuation of the rod 38 is performed bypressing the keys 43 of the device shown generally at the top of the machine, Fig. 1, with the well known controlling and recording features. The preferred form of the device comprises means to control the bill delivery mechanism herein described and also to constitute a counting or calculating mechanism, preferably by printing the amount of money taken from the machine and their sums upon a sheet of paper 47 in a manner that is well known. The device may be adapted to any recognized type as is known in ,the art.

In the present arrangement as shown by Fig. 1, each key of the keyboard 43 may effect an electrical contact in a manner that is indicated in the lower. part of the device where an extension 43 of each of the keys is arranged to contact with a member 44:, the two forming part of an electric circuit which is indicated by the Wires 45 and i6 and the electric source 47 as described. It should be stated in connection with the keyboard shown on Fig. 1, that while only 5 keys are shown here having single bill values marked, there can be any number of single keys representing sums of a combination of,bills, of different denomination, controlled and delivered at one depression of such a key. For example, one key may befitt-ed with wire connections to control the solenoids of three bill pockets at atime, as for example the pockets containing the 2, 5 and 20 dollar bills, giving this a sum of 27 dollars as marked upon the respective key, and shown on Fig. 6.

The exact arrangement of wires is not fully shown in Fig. 1, but will be fully understood. by those skilled in the art.

I will now describe the operation of the feed table.

The maintenance of the stored pile of bills on the table 50, Fig. 1, at a uniform rate is provided for by making the table 50 slidable upon the end of a rod 51, which slides freely in a guide bushing 52. The rod 51 carries on one of its sides a toothed rack 53 which is in mesh with a pinion 54, mounted on the shaft 54 Fig. 4. On the same shaft a ratchetwheel 55, is mounted which rests in mesh with the ratchet rack 56, of the bar 57. sion spring 61, the purpose of which is to keep the bar 57, in grip with the ratchet wheel 55 and the right end of the bar 57 constitutes the armature of an electro-magnet 62, while the wires 63 and 64 and the electric source 65 constitute the electric circuit. When the circuit is completed by closing the two contacts 66 and 67, Fig. 1, the clectromagnet is energized thus attracting the bar 57 in the direction shown by the arrow Fig. 4, at the same time causing the ratchet wheel 55, to revolve, which mounted on a shaft common with the pinion 54:, causes also said pinion to revolve slightly raising thus the rod supporting table 50 up ward, but when the circuit is broken the eleclremagnet is denergized and consequently the bar 57 is released, which at the same moment by the pullin action of the spring 60 is instantaneously rought back toward One end of said bar iscarried by a tenthe stop 58, while the ratchet rack, coming at this moment to grip with the teeth of the ratchet wheel 55, is in readiness again for the next reciprocation of the armature bar 57, and the next elevation of the table 50.

In order to reciprocate the ratchet bar 57,

periodically only, and when, due to removal of the bills by the belt carrier 7, the top of the stack of billsupon the table 50 has been lowered to a point where the force of the air suction fails to attract abill from the stack, a pivotally supported feeler member 68 is provided, whose lower end rests lightly on the top of the stack of bills, and the upper end of the same carries a contact 67 situated opposite another fixed contact 66, both of these contacts carrying the circuit wires,' be ing brought in touch with each other cause the energization of the electromagnet 62 restoring thus immediately, the level of the pile of bills in the manner already described.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a machine of the kind described, a fixed suction member constituting an exten sion of a suction chamber, and an outside member movably mounted around the fixed member; said movable member having a plurality of openings and moving in proximity to the top of a stack of bills to be removed and delivered to the operator; means combined with the stationary and movable members to pick the uppermost bill from the stack, and deliver said bill to a place of deposit, another fixed suction member constituting also an extension of the suction chamber, and an auxiliary member movably mounted around said second fixed memher; said auxiliary moving member cotiperatively moving with the first bill carrying member acting to prevent the carrying by said first moving member, of more than one ill at a time to a place of deposit, a series of bill containers each adapted to receive a pile of bills, selectively operative means common to all said containers whereby the bills may be removed one at a time from any container, and a conveying mechanism imparting movement to said means whereby each bill as removed from a container will be conveyed therefrom and delivered to the operator.

2. In a machine of the kind described, the combination of a bill carrying and progressively moving suction member, operative in the proximity of the top of a stack of bills, a second progressively moving suction member cotiperatively working with the first bill carrying suction member, at a distance from the stack of bills, and in proximity to said member, adapted to prevent said bill carrying member from carrying more than one bill at a. time; a series of bill containers each adapted to receive a pile of bills, selectively operative controlling means whereby the bills may be removed from any container, pneumatic means common to all said containers whereby the bills may be removed one ata time from any container and a delivery mechanism acting in conjunction with said means whereby a bill as re moved from its container is delivered to the operator.

3. In a machine of the kind described, the combination of a bill carrying and progressively moving suction member, operative in the proximity of the top of a stack of bills, a second progressively moving suction member cocipcratively working with the first named bill carrying suction member, and in proximity to said first named member, adapted to separate two bills superficially adhering to one another, preventing here by said bill carrying member from carrying more than one bill at a time to a place of deposit, a series of bill containers each adapted to receive a pile of bills, pneumatic means whereby one bill at a time may be removed from its container, selectively opera tive controlling means common to all said containers whereby any individual container or combination of several continers may be rendered operative at a time, and delivery mechanism operative in conjunction with said means whereby each bill or bills re moved from its containers is delivered to the operator.

4:. In a machine of the kind described, the combination of a bill carrying and progressively moving suction member operative in proximity to the top of a stack of bills, a second progressively moving suction mem ber cooperatively working with the first named bill carrying suction member and in proximity to said member, adapted to prevent said bill carrying member from carrying more than one bill at a time, a series of stationary bill containers, each adapted to receive a pile of bills, selectively operative means whereby any container or a plurality of containers at a time, may be rendered operative, pneumatic means common to all containers whereby each of these containers is adapted to surrender one bill at a. time, a delivery mechanism acting in conjunction with said means whereby cach bill removed is delivered to the operator, and intermittently acting means for maintaining the level of the top of the stack of bills below the carrier.

5. In a machine of the kind described, the combination of a bill carrying and progressively moving suction member, in proximity of the top of a stack of bills, a second progressively moving suction member, cooper atively working with the first bill carrying suction member at a distance from the stack of bills, a series of bill containers, each adapted to receive a pile of bills, selectively "operative means whereby any container or a plurality of containers at a time, may be rendered operative, pneumatic means common to all containers, whereby one bill at a time is surrendered by any container selected, adjustable supports for the column of bills in each container, a feeler, an electromagnet, a ratchet wheel, pinion, and a toothed rack bar attached to the rod supporting the stack of bills, operated by said feeler and the electromagnet, adapted to control. the position of said support, whereby an intermittent adjustment of height of the column of bills is provided for.

6. In combination with a controller an electric circuit, a number of solenoids there in, stationary currency bill containers, a movable shutter for each container whereby a currency bill container is rendered operative, by exposing the top of the pile of bills, and means for withdrawing a currency bill from such a container at the instant the bill container is rendered operative, surrendering one bill at a time.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ARTHUR VON BARIH.

WVitnesses I-ImcH OLoi-IoW, HENRY AUSTIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Iatents,

Washington, D. C. 

